Breeding News
The strength of the Victorian breeding industry was on full display at the Nutrien Equine Sydney Yearling Sale at Warwick Farm on Sunday.
Buyers will be spoilt for choice at next Sunday’s Australian Pacing Gold Melbourne Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction with a quality lineup of prospective stars catalogued.
Prominent Wagga horseman Paul Kahlefeldt had a ‘night of nights’ at Cranbourne last Saturday when he bred the winners of two of the four Group races at the Gippsland club’s signature meeting.
Always Treasure, a trotting mare owned by Cranbourne identity David Scott, provided one of the highlights of last week’s Victorian racing from a breeding standpoint when she produced two winners from as many starters in the space of 48 hours.
Goulburn Valley horseman Eddie Tappe has an eye for a bargain, and the products of one of his purchases turned into a Cups double at Shepparton over the weekend.
Elvira Bromac, a Badlands Hanover mare bought from the Trading Ring for a paultry $2,200 about 15 years ago, is proving a worthwhile investment for a group of mates from Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Retired Geelong businessman and hobby harness breeder and owner Gary Merlo is finding the annual yearling sales a splendid source of winners.
The old adage that it takes a few decades to become an overnight success was borne out with Undera grazier and hobby breeder Ray Sellwood, whose terrific season got even better when the exciting two-year-old filly Arrhythmia beat a star-studded field in the $100,000 Breeders Crown Final at Melton on Saturday night.
A deal arranged by legendary Goulburn Valley trotting scribe Gus Underwood and leading nursery Llowalong Farms about five years ago paved the way for the APG Yearling Sales Vicbred Super Series Silver 2YO Trot winner Hallebesofine.
Bolinda professional trainer Brent Lilley has claimed the Trotting Trainer of the Year title for the seventh time at the Victorian Square Trotters Association Awards for 2024.
Six of the 10 newly crowned APG Yearling Sales Vicbred Super Series champions carry the blood of previous winners of the time-honoured classic.
I Am Wilma, the convincing winner of the fastest heat of the APG Yearling Sales Vicbred Super Series for three-year-old trotting fillies at Melton, was the result of a breeding program hatched by Jeparit enthusiast Wayne Schulze and his former breeding partner Dale Eastman that goes back to 2000.
It was a case of beginner’s luck for Melton breeders Ian and Angelica Attard, whose first ever broodmare Elita ranks as the dam of the star two-year-old filly Pre Eminant, an impressive winner of an APG Yearling Sales Vicbred Super Series heat at Bendigo.
The gallant win of Mecarno in the Group 1 $60,000 Yabby Dam Farms Victoria Trotters Derby at Maryborough was some redemption for his dam Sundon’s Pride, who ran second in the same race 18 years ago.
In a coup for the Australian breeding industry, Maharajah and Calgary Games, two of the greatest trotters ever produced in Sweden, will be available to breeders via frozen semen this season.
The royally bred Muscle Hill horse E L Titan Tr 1:51.4 ($726,344), who is standing this season at Goulburn Valley Equine under the banner of Haras Des Trotteurs, is currently the leading percentage sire of two-year-old trotters in North America and one of the leading sires in the very competitive New Year Sires Stake program.
Obtaining the best possible international and local trotting genetics has been the Haras Des Trotteurs/Yabby Dam Farms’ mantra since being founded by Ballarat trotting breeder Pat Driscoll in 2014.
Harness Racing Victoria’s May and June $1500 breeding vouchers are helping keep breeders in the game. To date, 26 fillies…